Fireside Chat with Prof Graham Allison: Revisiting the Thucydides Trap
China and the United States are heading for a war that neither wants. According to Professor Graham Allison (Harvard), the reason is Thucydides’s Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one.
Join Oxford University International Relations Society and Oxford Diplomatic Society to revisit Thucydides’s Trap as Donald Trump has returned to the White House and renewed tensions between the United States and China seem inevitable. Is Thucydides’s Trap really the best lens for understanding U.S.-China relations in the twenty-first century? What painful steps do the United States and China must take to avoid disaster today?
Professor Allison is the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard University and a graduate of Hertford College (PPE, 1964). This event is open to all members of the University of Oxford, and we encourage interested participants to register via the link below.

Members of Oxford University International Relations Society are cordially invited to the drinks reception with Prof Allison at the the foyer of TS Eliot Theatre from 4-5 pm.
Date: 19 February 2025, 17:00
Venue: T. S. Eliot Lecture Theatre
Venue Details: TS Eliot Lecture Theatre (Rose Lane), Merton College
Speaker: Graham Allison (Harvard Kennedy School)
Organising department: Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR)
Organiser: Haitong Du (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: exec.committee@oxirsoc.com
Booking required?: Recommended
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/oxford-international-relations-society-36000712213
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Haitong Du, Mirabai Venkatesh